Chapter XLIII On Diseases of the Head and Eyes
It may happen that a cataract form on your hawk’s eye. If so:—
Remedy: should it arise from humidity of temperament, feed her for three days on larks and sparrows, giving her the feathers so that she may cast in the morning. Should she not recover, then brand her with log-wood659 between the eye and the nostril on both sides, making two small brands the size of a peppercorn. Item: take a tamarisk stick and put one end in the fire. Then take a piece of twisted cotton-wool and apply the oozing sap, quite hot, to the cataract. Give her also one small dose of manna,660 so that she be “moved”661 a few times. Item: remove the fine film with scissors.
Should your hawk’s eye become white, so much so that the pupil is covered, then, if the disease arises from excessive cold or from the effects of snow, treat as follows. Remedy: steam with snow,662 and should this fail foment663 with water. Should she not then be cured, foment with curds.
Should the defect be due to cold and snow, it will be removed by these remedies, but should it arise from a blow, then the cure is as follows. Remedy: draw a stick of lunar caustic twice across the eye, and she shall be whole. Should she not be whole, then procure a white cock and slay it according to ordinance, and remove its gall. (You must be in a state of ceremonial purity and must have performed the fixed ablutions.) Then cast and “mail” your hawk, and stand facing the Qibla.664 With a pure heart and single faith, doubting not that the whiteness will disappear from your hawk’s eye, cry aloud, “O Holy God! Thou who canst melt the rocks of the mountains, remove this whiteness from my hawk’s eye.
O Thou who makes the eye both black and white
Change this white spot; restore my hawk to sight.”
Saying this, squeeze the cock’s gall into your hawk’s afflicted eye.
Should a cure not be effected the first time, repeat the remedy, using the same observances but a fresh cock-gall.665 Please God she will recover, for this is a proved remedy.
Footnotes
656 “Slice” said of a hawk, “When she mewteth a good distance from her.”—Gentleman’s Recreation, ii, 63.
657 K͟hizāna, the “pannel.”
658 “... ye shall say cast yowre hawke to the perch. and not set youre hawke upon the perch.”—Boke of St. Albans.
659 i.e., with a stick of log-wood (baqam) burnt in the fire.
660 Shīr-k͟hisht, a species of manna collected from certain trees.
661 It̤lāq shudan, a medical term.
662 Buk͟hūr bā barf kardan: snow is placed in a basin and a red-hot stone or iron cast into it.
663 Buk͟hūr bā āb dādan is either to foment or to steam with hot water.
664 Qibla, the direction of prayer, that is, towards Mecca.
665 The cock’s crow is, Ẕikr Ullah Ẕikr Ullah, yā g͟hāfilīn! “Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, oh ye slothful!”